Opinions please

[RunningRn24]

Hi! I am on the hunt for my first job as an RN and I'm unsure about where to go.

I just moved to a new city, far from my nursing school and my contacts from my tech job. I spent one year working as a tech on a surgical floor, did a nurse externship, and did 4 months as precepted SN in the SICU of a level one trauma center. I really tried to like working in the hospital, but every day was a stressful struggle and it left my nerves frazzled.

I went to nursing school with the desire to be a psych nurse and get an DNP eventually. I loved my psych clinicals and I really felt in my element during them. This made me feel pretty weird since all of my classmates seemed to hate psych and everyone discouraged me from pursing it.

I originally got a BA in psych, so I attribute it partly to that.

So now in my new city, I know hardly anyone and I've been applying for a ton of jobs. I had an interview with a group home to work as an RN for clients with DD. I'm starting to think that this might be a really good fit for me.

My issue is that I'm a little worried that this will limit me later on in my career. If I want to stay psych and go back to school I feel like working there kind of makes sense. That being said I probably won't get that real med/surg experience (that I don't really want, but everyone says that I should have). Do you think that it matters considering my interests?

FYI I don't have an offer on the table yet, and I don't have any other interviews. Just trying to do some soul searching in case I get offered a position and have to decide.

If you read this, thanks! Have a great day wonderful nurse!

[S.G.]

If you get offered the job, I would recommend taking it. It's in the specialty you want. If you find that it isn't a fit for you and you leave, you can then pursue that med/surg experience if you want. Psych experience will be valuable for you given your stated career path desires. I find that med/surg is a great experience for nurses to have before moving into specialties because it helps to ground your basic nursing skills so that you can move into a specialty unit knowing that you understand basic assessments, time management and teamwork. Psych is a beast all its own. I've only worked Psych once as an RN because they were short so I floated. You don't do the same things. You certainly get some basic nursing skills like cleaning up messes and working with a team, delegating tasks to nursing assistants, etc but you may not get experience with the weird lung sounds or bowel sounds.

That being said, pursuing a career in psych, you need psych skills, not necessarily med/surg. You should be able to recognize a medical problem so that it can be treated and the patient transferred to a medical unit if needed, but it's not essential to work in med/surg in order to recognize a medically ill patient. As much as it pains me to say, any new grad offered a job in the specialty they want, should take it because it's hard enough to find a job! If the facility is willing to put in the training required to get a new grad up to speed, take the job!

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

Given that you are a new grad and in New York, one of the toughest markets in the country, I would advise you to apply for anything and everything. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Good luck!

[RunningRn24]

Thank you both for your feedback! I actually ended up with two offers, one at rehab/LTC with practically no orientation, or the DD job with a well structured training. I had a really good feeling about the DD job and I accepted it today. I'm pretty excited! Good luck to all those on the job hunt!

[S.G.]

Thank you both for your feedback! I actually ended up with two offers one at rehab/LTC with practically no orientation, or the DD job with a well structured training. I had a really good feeling about the DD job and I accepted it today. I'm pretty excited! Good luck to all those on the job hunt![/quote']

Congrats! I hope you enjoy your new job!